Sunday, December 31, 2017

On the Eve of a New Year The National Organization of
Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) Expresses Concern Over Recent
Questionable Use of Force Applications by Law Enforcement

[Alexandria, VA] On the eve of a New Year,
the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE)
issues a call for greater accountability and training amongst law
enforcement in the use of force against citizens.

Just in this past week, we have seen a tragic officer-related
death of an unarmed man, Andrew Finch, in his home in Wichita, Kansas
and serious officer-related injuries sustained by Ulysses Wilkerson, a
teenager in Troy, Alabama, and several other similar recent Use of Force
Applications by Law Enforcement across this country. People of all
walks of life across this nation are concerned about the questionable
use of force applications in these cases.

Though these both are ongoing investigations, the images of
the moments prior to Mr. Finch's death and the bloody photos of Ulysses
Wilkerson's trauma to the brain and face initially suggest questionable
use of force applications by law enforcement officers. NOBLE is
committed to building an inclusive community-oriented police and law
enforcement culture that protects and does not victimize those it
serves.

In 2018, we must be vigilant to investigate and require
greater accountability and training when questionable uses of force by
law enforcement result in harmful and deadly consequences for all
citizens. These recent incidents further demonstrate the need for
mandatory national standards, a national Use of Force Data Base and
Criminal Justice reform, stated Clarence E. Cox, III National President
of NOBLE.

###

About the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives

Since 1976, The
National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) has
served as the conscience of law enforcement by being committed to
justice by action. NOBLE represents over 3,000 members internationally,
who are primarily African-American chief executive officers of law
enforcement agencies at federal, state, county and municipal levels,
other law enforcement administrators, and criminal justice
practitioners. For more information, visit http://www.noblenational.org.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

The Proms 2017 season is over, but the concerts live on! On our Facebook page, a highlights clip
of the Chineke! Prom is still clocking up huge numbers – an astonishing
2.6m views and 57,000 shares as of 1 October 2017, making it the
social-media success of the season.

And our second most-viewed and shared clip
on Facebook? Also from the Chineke! Prom – Trinidadian soprano Jeanine
De Bique's stunning performance of 'Da tempeste il legno infranto' from
Handel's Julius Caesar.

Truly, Prom 62, conducted by Kevin John Edusei, was the breakout Prom of the festival and below are a few reasons why.

***

Chineke! formed just two years ago

Yes,
it really was as recently as 2015 that the Chineke! Foundation was
established by double bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE to provide, in the
foundation's words, "career opportunities to young Black and Minority
Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe".

Its flagship ensemble is the Chineke! orchestra and that it could go
from forming to debuting at the Proms in such a short period of time
captured imaginations – within classical music and far, far beyond.

In their ranks is a superstar youngster

Not every musician, however good they are, is sprinkled with stardust
but cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason certainly is. He's gone from being
awarded the Marguerite Swan Memorial Prize for the highest marks in the
UK for Grade 8 cello (aged 9), to winning BBC Young Musician 2016,
to inking a deal with Decca, to making his Proms debut with Chineke!,
and he's still only 18. And what a debut performance he gave us – superb
accounts of Dvořák's fabulous Rondo (above) and David Popper's
Hungarian Rhapsody.

***

established writing talent that deserves a bigger audience

In a 2015 Guardian article,
Tom Service, who presents for Radio 3, declared George Walker to be
"the great American composer you've never heard of". And this neglect
was despite the fact that Walker was the first African-American to win
the Pulitzer for music.

In the internet age, his work is coming into better and better focus
and that's long-overdue. Walker is 95 and this performance of his
best-known piece, Lyric for Strings – written when he was 24 – marked
his Proms debut.

During the height of segregation and Jim Crow, many
African Americans owned copies of the “Negro Motorist Green Book,” a
guide that informed travelers of the safest places to eat, sleep or get a
haircut when on the open road. The book was first published in 1936 by a
Harlem postal worker, and it continued to be released in updated and
expanded editions until the mid-1960s and the passage of the Civil
Rights Act.

“There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide
will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal
opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great
day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we
please, and without embarrassment.”

That was how the authors of the “Negro Motorist Green Book” ended the
introduction to their 1948 edition. In the pages that followed, they
provided a rundown of hotels, guest houses, service stations, drug
stores, taverns, barber shops and restaurants that were known to be safe
ports of call for African American travelers. The “Green Book” listed
establishments in segregationist strongholds such as Alabama and
Mississippi, but its reach also extended from Connecticut to
California—any place where its readers might face prejudice or danger
because of their skin color. With Jim Crow still looming over much of
the country, a motto on the guide’s cover also doubled as a warning:
“Carry your Green Book with you—You may need it.”

I hope you're having a warm holiday season! If you're too busy
to read this, just skip to the bottom for our next show, the new video
and please support us.

Christmas is always a favorite time of concerts for classical musicians. CutTime Simfonica has a new holidays program we tried out for our Noel Night set at La Palma Mediterranean. We learned that baroque music with soft sleighbells is a big winner!

I
want to extend my highest gratitude to the many musicians,
administrators, teachers, new fans and supporters we turned on in 2017!
Things slowly began taking off with larger, private projects and special
events including a soon-to-be-announced recording release.

CutTime Players
returned to Greater Grace Temple for a new set of symphonic Christmas
songs alternating with high gospel fireworks. I even got work with a
young student I knew from my volunteer work at Detroit Schools of the
Arts years ago. We're so honored to support their celebration into the
future.

Last week, I was called at noon Monday asking for a CutTime concert in their office
noon TUESDAY, to honor a special guest for our new client at Hutzel
Hospital! I said, "No problem." We're getting many calls to play lunch
hours at offices, evening corporate events, gallery events and small
house concerts. It doesn't put us further out in the general public, but
it often pays well and plants more seeds.

The week before, I contracted and conducted an orchestra for a society Christmas gala
with two solo pianists (Bach & Gershwin concertos), a rising opera
star (3 arias) and the CutTime Players. We had a marvelous time.

I was contracted to play bass in some parts of Schubert Mass in G and the cello quintet. The student choir at Dearborn HS
immediately loved the power, shaping and professionalism of the string
quintet so much, I wrote strongly how it might've changed her life.

Even Christmas Eve, sight-reading a double Christmas mass
(9p & midnight) in another string quintet, the deepest context for
Grieg, Holst, the carols, the creation mass and all the church
musicians, built tremendously upon the occasion! Life is so beautiful
with such music in it.

Coming up is an annual chamber
music party at a dear friend's home. With four rooms playing quartets
simultaneously (at a low level), it sounds less like a music school than
an orgy of Schumann, Beethoven, Schubert and my favorite, Brahms!
That's the peak of my holiday the last 15 years.

Finally, I want to add what a triple pleasure it's been to sub into the Ann Arbor and Lansing Symphony Orchestras. Besides getting to play symphonies again, it's the best way to recruit new musicians for casual classical
events across the region, to make a difference plugging into the full
symphonic machine, and to get paid for it too, even if not DSO wages.

Also, it sharpens my sense of community service, to these musicians as well as the general public. We just need sponsors and donors for a local raw classical
series. In 2018 we may find the resources to once again scale up our
impactful, free, public events. Please help us with contacts curious
about effective commercial classical in clubs and for new audience
development and community outreach services that matter.

Come see CutTime Simfonica at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church Sunday January 21 at 3p-4:30. MOT Concertmaster Eliot Heaton is our featured fiddler and tickets are only $10 each in advance. See the Facebook event page here.

CutTime Simfonica returns to Cleveland April 17-19 with stellar shows for the Rocky River Senior Center featuring Cleveland Institute of Music alum (like me).

With new tax changes coming at us, now is the best time in the foreseeable future to support the artistic innovations of CutTime® via Fractured Atlas. Have a very Happy New Years and thank you for supporting the arts!

Many
of you who live or grew up in Black communities in the United States
have probably heard of "Watch Night Services," the gathering of the faithful
in church on New Year's Eve. The service usually begins anywhere from 7
p.m. to 10 p.m. and ends at midnight with the entrance of the New Year.
Some folks come to church first, before going out to celebrate. For
others, church is the only New Year's Eve event.

Like
many others, I always assumed that Watch Night was a fairly standard
Christian religious service — made a bit more Afro centric because
that's what happens when elements of Christianity become linked with the
Black Church. Still, it seemed that predominately White Christian
churches did not include Watch Night services on their calendars, but
focused instead on Christmas Eve programs. In fact, there were instances
where clergy in mainline denominations wondered aloud about the
propriety of linking religious services with a secular holiday like New
Year's Eve.

However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year's Eve services in African American congregations.

The
Watch Night Services in Black communities that we celebrate today can
be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1862, also known as
"Freedom's Eve." On that night, Blacks came together in churches and
private homes all across the nation, anxiously awaiting news that the
Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law. Then, at the stroke
of midnight, it was January 1, 1863, and all slaves in the Confederate
States were declared legally free. When the news was received, there
were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as people fell to their knees and
thanked God.

Black
folks have gathered in churches annually on New Year's Eve ever since,
praising God for bringing us safely through another year.

It's
been 144 years since that first Freedom's Eve and many of us were never
taught the African American history of Watch Night, but tradition still
brings us together at this time every year to celebrate "how we got
over".

PS- Pass this information on so we can educate more of our family and friends!

Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser joins Symphony Nova Scotia as Artist in Residence and Community Ambassador for the 2017/18 season.

Daniel has worked with some of the foremost conductors of this
generation; among them are Mark Elder, Clark Rundell, Baldur Bronnimann,
Arthur Post, and Kenneth Kiesler. He is currently Assistant Conductor
of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada. Previous to his
appointment in Kitchener-Waterloo, he was Assistant and then Associate
Conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra.

Monday, December 25, 2017

Greetings and welcome to this week's episode of AaronAsk, your weekly mentoring session to live a fulfilling creative life! This week's episode is titled, The Finish Line! Enjoy, we wish you a creative day and see you for next week's session!Comment by email:

The New Yorker

Handel’s “Messiah,” on Skid Row

A visionary Los Angeles violinist makes music with the homeless.

By Alex Ross

Three years ago, Brian Palmer, a
forty-three-year-old native of Beaumont, California, was a homeless man
struggling to overcome heroin addiction. All he owned was a bag
containing some clothes, a blanket, and a pillow. He sought assistance
at a recovery center at the heart of Skid Row, the dismayingly large
tent city in downtown Los Angeles. One activity that helped him through
the skittish early period of sobriety was singing. As a kid, he dreamed
of becoming a professional singer; he was a member of the church choir
and appeared in musicals at school. In 2015, he encountered the Urban
Voices Project, a choir made up of Skid Row residents and allies. This
led him to Street Symphony, a group of professional musicians, mostly
from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the L.A. Master Chorale, which
works with homeless, mentally ill, and incarcerated populations. In
February, Palmer began taking voice lessons from Scott Graff, a member
of the Master Chorale and of the Street Symphony Chamber Singers. Graff
told me, “I gave Brian some tips on vocal technique, and he taught me
life lessons. I got the better end of the deal.”

A
few days after Thanksgiving, Palmer sang in a musical workshop at the
Midnight Mission, a charitable institution on Skid Row. He had been
studying “The People That Walked in Darkness,” a bass aria from Handel’s
“Messiah.” In ten days’ time, he would sing it with Street Symphony,
which presents an abridged “Messiah” at Midnight each year. At the
workshop, five string players accompanied him; a few dozen members of
the Skid Row community were in attendance. Before performing, Palmer
shared with the audience some thoughts about the music. A tall man with
shaggy hair and a drawling voice, he was dressed in jeans and a “Rule
Your Own Destiny” T-shirt. He told his story with the practiced
directness of someone who has attended many twelve-step meetings. “When I
came here, three years ago, I didn’t know where my life was going to
take me,” he said. “I just knew that I needed to change, and that I
needed help. When I was walking through my life in addiction, and the
darkness and the hell I had created for myself, it was like the phoenix
coming out of the darkness and seeing the light.”

Palmer
then sang the aria. The text, from the book of Isaiah, is as follows:
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light
shined.” Handel’s “Messiah” is such a fixture of the repertory that it
takes some effort to focus on the words and register what they mean. In
that respect, Palmer surpassed any singer I have heard. He performed
well for one who has been studying vocal technique for less than a year,
and in the lower end of his range he had a round, full tone that can’t
be taught. More important, he made the text sound as though it had been
taken from his own life.

***

The first performance of “Messiah,” in Dublin, in 1742, was, according to
a contemporary announcement, presented “for the Relief of the Prisoners
in the several Gaols.” Proceeds from the première helped the Charitable
Musical Society to free a hundred and forty-two people from debtors’
prison. Street Symphony’s “Messiah” therefore comes closer to the
original spirit of the piece than most modern versions do. The first
“Messiah” attracted a “most Grand, Polite and crowded Audience”; the
performances at the Midnight Mission draw Skid Row residents, charitable
workers, benefactors, and musicians’ friends. People may start dancing
during the “Hallelujah” Chorus or shouting out encouragement during the
arias. Zanaida Robles, who has been conducting the Street Symphony
“Messiah” since 2015, welcomes such friendly interruptions, often
turning around to acknowledge them.

Saint-Georges was born on a Caribbean plantation where his mother was a slave owned by his father. His aristocratic education at a fencing academy in France led him to become a champion fencer as a young man. He soon began playing the violin. Before long he was a concert master, and he began composing.

Many CDs of his music have been recorded, mainly in Europe but also in the United States and Canada. A DVD of the life of Saint-Georges has been produced in Canada.

And the other
evening at Grace First Presbyterian Church, Long Beach Chorale once
again served up their specialty, a “Festival of Carols” that
acknowledged tradition while exploring interesting corners of the
contemporary repertoire.

Artistic director Eliza Rubenstein has
long been a champion of new music, and she has a particular gift for
structuring a program of new and interesting compositions and
arrangements that don’t scare anyone off. If this program was, to quote
an introductory speaker, “mostly things you’ve never heard before,” the
audience still came away with that warm fuzzy Christmas feeling.

***

William Grant Still, the other big name on the program, was a jazz
arranger as well as a composer, and it showed in the sweet, simple “Glad
Christmas Bells” as well as the spiritual-like “Shout! Shout! Tell the
Story,” from his “Christmas in the Western World.”

The Virginia Symphony Orchestra announced Friday it will perform a
free concert paying homage to Martin Luther King Jr. Jan. 14 in Norfolk.
The event aims to embody the Civil Rights leader’s focus on bringing
people together.

“It’s more important now than ever to celebrate
him,” said VSO music director JoAnn Falletta, adding that King’s focus
on peace and unity make for “a message that still needs to be heard.”

The
concert continues a decades-long tradition of the VSO honoring Martin
Luther King Jr. through artistic expression. Falletta said the
initiative helps foster relationships between local communities,
churches and the symphony itself.

This year’s concert begins with “The Star Spangled
Banner” and then transitions into “Symphony No. 1” by 20th century
African-American composer William Grant Still. The concert also features
Duke Ellington’s “Three Black Kings,” which in part commemorates King’s
life.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Countertenor
Darryl Taylor has performed all over the United States and the world,
with concerts in Cuba, Shanghai, and Barcelona, to name a few. He is
also a scholar, mentor, and the founder of the African American Art Song
Alliance. More than that, he's my buddy.

Monday, December 18, 2017

Musical America is one of the world’s top music publications, distributed in over 95 countries around the globe.
Their annual Movers and Shapers report highlights the work of people
who are redefining and driving the future of classical music and the
performing arts. Quinton was selected for his accomplishments as a
performer and educator, and in particular for his work creating the Key
to Change in South King County.
Through the Key to Change, Quinton strives to make classical music
accessible to all students, regardless of their race or socioeconomic
background. Congratulate Quinton and help Key to Change continue
to make violin lessons accessible to all students in South King County
with a gift to our Key to Change Scholarship Fund.
Join Quinton and the Key to Change as we work to diversify the field of
classical music and inspire the next generation of young musicians!

Comment by email:

HI Bill:

Wow! Thanks for getting the word out about this. I really appreciate it!